Very illuminating, all the comments I got from my previous article Pabebe Girl Power highlights Filipinos’ confusion: Are we individualists or collectivists?! 🙂
I do agree, it’s a double-edged sword this whole idea of self-expression. With the floodgates open thanks to social media, the idea that a small bunch of bureaucrats are the final authority on morality or “tasteful” conduct is fast becoming obsolete. But what’s gonna replace that still-relevant role of making sure media content builds rather than erodes the national intellect?
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I do have issue with how the “elders” generation presume to tell today’s youth how to conduct themselves. I mean, it is their generation who screwed up the Philippines, right? In fact, they’re still doing it. Most of the people who fill the halls of Congress are either the same old-timers or the kids of those old-timers.
I still have to mull over the idea that individualism is necessarily better than collectivism though. I mean, great countries like Japan and Korea became great doing their collectivist thing. I read too that Germany also had a relatively collectivist culture where everyone has to conform to certain standards. Is it true that, to this day, Germans still have a standard list of German names from which to choose to name their babies? If you think about it, those countries kinda debunk the notion that individualism is better than collectivism.
I have to agree with Robert though who observed that in the Philippines, “Everybody is taking care of everybody (hence nobody is really responsible for anything).” But that’s also probably because of what commenter Go Rico said, that “34% of the population is 14 years old or younger, and 19% is 15-25 years old” and that presumably is what makes family important, because we are essentially a young nation where the social safety net is comprised of large families whose members help one another.
Maybe there is nothing wrong with that. According to Manila Times columnist Ben Kritz in his write up Bad move, Greece,
The reason why Greece ran into trouble while the very similarly managed Philippines has not is because much of Greece’s debt was incurred in maintaining social safety nets: Subsidized prices, wage controls, low- or no-cost health care and education, various forms of financial welfare, and so on. The Philippines has very little in the way of comparable safety nets, and thus does not have to pour money into keeping its population content in the same way Greece has for generations.
Not ideal maybe, but somehow the Philippines chugs along despite being a poor country and people get by despite having so little. Now, before you guys accuse me of espousing our famous pwede-na-yan mentality, I’d like to emphasize that I still believe that there is still lots of work to be done to achieve ths kind of “social justice” people in more progressive countries enjoy today. Certainly the continued sight of little children begging in our streets is still nothing short of an outrage.
But if you think about it, Filipinos seem to be getting to a point of having a better claim to sovereignity and “pride” compared to Greece whose governmenty has been reduced to a humble vassal of the European Union thanks to its crushing indebtedness. That’s not to compare the Philippines (which is still a Third World nation) to Greece (which is a developed country with a history of high civilization going back millenia). Absolutely apples to oranges!
Nevertheless the truism still holds, success is relative. Greece was once a great country. Now it’s headed for the dumpster. The Philippines never was a great country, and so the only way for the Philippines is up. That’s unless, of course, there are still depths of depravity Filipinos have not yet discovered and plumbed!
The Pabebe Girls’ plight pretty much parallels the Philippines’ history. Some may interpret their flavor of self-expression as a misuse of their new-found freedom to express themselves much the same way as the Philippines used its “freedom” to elect the criminals and idiots we see today to be their leaders. But, in the same way, we can choose, instead, to find opportunity in the doors freedom opens to exploration.
Similarly, the Philippines, contrary to what a lot of people say, is still full of promise — sort of like we were all once young and penniless but had the entire future before us to grab. I guess the key here is choosing the right path. I’d say, that’d be a better place to be in compared, say, to Greece which once flew high and has now all but crashed and burned under the weight of its old and entitled population.
So while there is so much opportunity for our young country, there are also a lot of pitfalls ahead. The hard part is to choose the right path and tread carefully.
Frustrated artist doing geek for a living.
I just saw this! Mrs. Marcos was interviewed in a show called “Power House” and what she revealed there is just simply mind-boggling! Is she just doing a “pabebe” or is it something more to really cheer up the pinoys?!
https://www.facebook.com/FAPMKS.Official/videos/449740308459629/
if this nauseating Woman actually has what she is showing the interviewer, WHY WAS IT NOT ALL CONFISCATED?
Seeing a woman that used to brag about having, but not wearing ,3,000 pairs of fuckin shoe’s say that she and her family have ‘been the one’s that truly suffered’ and that she is sitting on ‘mountains of ounces of GOLD’, OMG !!!!
This woman says that she and her family are on the side of ‘God’ and that she is ‘untouchable’ and won the ‘Trial of the century’. That is what she thinks. This horrid old ogre says that she was ‘persecuted’ and then laughs, going on to say she has ‘nothing to hide’. BUT the CA$H is in 170 banks located around the world in USA funds, not Philippine Peso’s, WHY IS THAT?QUESTION” Why was it not all kept in the Philippines? Nothing to hide? and yet it looks as if it was hidden pretty much in every far corner of the globe where no one could ever get at it.
This woman is THE perfect example of why what needs to be done, needs to be done.
Would you trust someone who’s a World Bank insider?
This woman needs to be robbed….
The problem is that people that are looking up at the curb are seeing a skyscraper. The country is fucked, leave now and do not go back.
Ben Kritz fails to see that Greece was targeted for a leveraged buyout (an entire fuckin country !and the dye has now been cast), and the social safety nets were all secured as long as the Bankster’s did not do as they did.
It is estimated that the Philippines GDP is half stolen,every year.By people like the Marcos family.Imeda goes on TV ,says she has nothing to hide, arrogantly stating that God is on her side and yet her fortune is scattered all around the globe instead of in her own country. And such obvious bull-shit artists are believed in the Philippines. Someone should tell Ben Kritz that the stolen half of the countries GDP could pay for the administration of the social safety nets. No one ever gets rich collecting Social Security and yet billions of dollars are made manipulating the markets,precious metals for example(the price is dropping yet demand is sky-rocketting, but nothing is rigged? wink wink…do not drink the cool-aid Benny,oops you already did,huh?) ,on a world-wide basis, in mere seconds and no taxes are paid due to the tax havens of the wealthy in places like the Island of Jersey in the U.K.,Belize(the former British Honduras), the Cayman Islands etc etc.
So the more Filipino’s embrace that which drives the ‘massa’ downward the less likely any of their lot in life will change. It is all going to get much worse in fact. Watch, you heard it here in Ms.Natividad’s article comments section. The Philippines ‘Massa’ will continue to earn P100/per day 25 years from now or until the islands are drown by the Pacific Ocean. The ‘elitist oligarchs/dynasties’ are laughing at all of you, and Filipino’s believe everything they say. ‘God’ is on my side, said the arrogant bitch.
The Philippines is a country, where every family member depends on a well to do family member.
I have a friend married to an American. The American complained to me; that he did not marry the Filipino girl’s family.
The Filipino wife sends: “Balikbayan boxes”, full of goods; she sends also money for tuitions of her nieces and nephews. Everybody in her family has financial problems.
I think the Filipino mindset is a Pandering mindset.
This is the reason, politicians who give “FREEBEES”, are easily elected. The gullible Filipinos hope that the “Freebee Politician”, will dole out “manna from heaven”, once he/she get elected…
i do the other way around. i send 50$ to my sister on her birthday and she’s in the US and i don’t expect something in return. i only ask household utilities like windex and other bathroom stuff to be sent here. hahaha!
a typical pinoy family who depends on their own bread winner. this is not clearly a practice of democracy.
Good for you Andrew – that means you’re blessed. The blessings of obedience according to the Pentateuch : I will make you the head and not the tail, the LENDER and not the borrower – God Almighty to the Isrealites.
What is it with Filipino’s love of the Jew? The ‘New Testament’ portion of the bible is written by a guy who was murdered by the Romans at the request of the Jews (OK Christ was a Jew too,but that is besides the point…).Even worse is the Jew see’s the world’s population as ‘Cattle’ or ‘Goyim’ in Hebrew/Yiddish. and I must say that if Filipino’s admire a race of people who think Filipino’s are ‘Cattle’ and may be treated as such as ‘Cattle’ are treated, why the fuck would you admire them and regard their teachings as some kind of ‘holy scripture’? are you fuckin brain-dead? DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, the next time a Jew calls you ‘Goyim/Cattle’ or refers to your wife/daughter/girlfriend as a ‘shiksa’ DON’T ADMIRE THE PERSON.Punch the scumbag in his/her face because he asked for it and certainly earned it. You are not sub-human, cattle/goyim ,and your wife/daughter/girlfriend is not a whore…and anyone who treats you as such, or even thinks of you as such deserves a GFB (GoodFuckinBeating).
@Spainard. So you must be from the bloodline of them colonizers of the Philippines that treated Pinoys as dumb-ass subhuman Indios eh? At least a Jew has more respect for a Filipino that the Spanish colonizers had on Indios.
In fact Israel honors the Philippines as one of the few nations that voted for the rebirth of Israel. Jews/Isrealites and Pinoys are buddies – don’t get that wrong.
If thet Jews had a problem with their thinking they’re some superior race (just because they were God’s chosen people), that’s something they had dealt with already. Nazi Germany gave them a big lesson on how it feels like being on the “inferior” side of the fence. It was a hard lesson costing the lives of 6M Jews. They already got their GFB. So lesson learned – let’s move forwards….
@ Zaxx, not 6 million Jews, why do you believe that #? it includes many others that were murdered for what they were.(Roma gypsies,Slavs,even twins and triplets of all stripes)
and I know Filipino’s that don’t like the Jews and think they are trouble-makers,yeah.
and no i’m not ‘One of those from that ‘bloodline’….whew, believe all you read don’t you ?
‘Let’s’…?
The only way for the Philippines is down
… Yes, down the arduous path of progress that leads to success. Fix your minds guys – Words are alive!
If you’re already rock bottom, there’s nowhere else to go but up. Cheer up – squatters aren’t forever.
We will all be gone; when that happens…if that would happen. Maybe, we will become extinct, as a nation, like the Dodo birds…Dodo birds cannot fly, and were “stupid” bird, like the Filipino YellowTards.
Survival of the fittest…we not not the fittest…
Stop now and always wonder. Press forward and tap the wonder. If I look back I am lost.
He who is looking backwards is constantly tripping over what is front of him.